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Monday, November 17, 2008

Christmas shopping coming to town

Already two weeks ago my local supermarket started offering Christmas-themed chocolate and candy, marking the official beginning of the (dreaded) Xmas shopping season. Just why would someone want to by Santa Claus-decorated sweets more than a month before the actual holiday is beyond me, but surely the supermarkets know what they are doing.

Of course, this is just a humble prologue to the full-fledged "festive season" kitsch that is soon to hit all the stores: the glitter, the omnipresent Santa, the over-decorated plastic Christmas trees... And the worst offender of all: the music! The same old, wretched, half a dozen songs with some kind of a Christmas motive that we are going to be hearing on an on, from now until December 25. If I were Santa, I'd be puking all the way from Lapland.

I don't know what's the deal: are the tunes supposed to work subliminaly, creating a cozy atmosphere (making you more predisposed to shop) or is it supposed to be a blatant reminder (omg, only X shopping days left, have to buy, buy, buy!)? Neither way is working with me. When you hear those songs once or twice it is actually ok, and some of the tunes are nice, so it does make you feel a bit... Christmas-y, I guess. But when it is hammered into your head for weeks on end, it's a major turn off.

That said, 'tis time to start making Christmas shopping lists (those of us anal-retentive types who can't shop otherwise), and I'm adding ear plugs to mine.


2 comments:

Corina said...

Come on, Jelica, some of the songs are actually fun. Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, for example

:-)

(Seriously, tho, just grin and bear it. and load traditional Serbian Carols on your iPod )

Jelica said...

Well, that's the tragegy of it--I actually like Rudolp the red-nosed reindeer, I just can't bear to hear it a million times, in every shop, and every bloody TV commercial... Btw, I like your website!